Heading south

Boot Key Harbor

Our friends left early Monday morning and we cast off from our mooring ball on Key Biscayne shortly after that to turn south again. After stopping to anchor at a couple of places along the way, we have made it as far as Marathon where we have picked up another mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor.  There are 226 mooring balls here, most of which appear to be occupied and mostly by sailboats.  It is an impressive sight.  We've heard that this harbor used to be very polluted and full of derelict boats.  They hauled out 100 boats when the city took over and started cleaning up the place. Now the water seems to be quite pristine even though many boats have people living permanently on them.  There is a vessel that comes around weekly to pump out holding tanks as part of your mooring fee, so there is no excuse for dumping sewage overboard.  The availability of pump out stations in the Keys is quite good.  North Carolina should take note of how it can be done.  No discharge zones are obviously important, but there need to be options that don't require you to travel three miles offshore to dump.

Not a good wind speed for sailing

The wind has not been our friend lately.  In spite of forecasts for favorable speed and direction, we have been motoring instead of sailing.  Yesterday the wind was supposed to be from the south but instead it was due west most of the day, the direction we were traveling.   And the 10-15k predicted did not materialize.  The picture says it all.  This weekend when we are planning to anchor in Key West, 25-30k wind is predicted.  Such is the life of a sailor!